05 November, 2016

EU Commissioners get massive ‘cool-off’ annual payments two years after office

Zero
ethics in the lobby-occupied, corrupted EU empire

16 former EU
Commissioners still receive sizeable annual allowances meant to
prevent them from going into well-paid corporate jobs despite having
left office two years ago, German media reports. All of them are now
top executives in industry or at lobbying firms.

The 16
former members of the European Commission led by Jose Manuel Barroso
until 2014 still get so-called “transition payments” of up to
€99,996 ($110,000) per annum, according to Die Zeit newspaper which
managed to obtain a list with the officials’ names from Brussels.

‘Transition
payments’ are meant to prevent outgoing top-tier EU officials from
changing into corporate jobs offering generous compensations as well
as switching sides immediately after leaving office. The scheme
allows them “to cool off,” as it is called in Brussels, the
newspaper said.

[...]

The measure
– or the amount of payments as such – did not seem to be working
as most of the officials in question took high-profile executive jobs
despite reimbursements from Brussels.

De Gucht is
currently on the supervisory boards of steel giant ArcelorMittal and
telecommunication company Proximus, while Hedegaard is a member of
the supervisory board at energy company Danfoss, along with
Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, who served as stand-in Commissioner for
about four months in 2014, according to Politico which has also
accessed the list.

The
revelation comes just days after an ethics panel has cleared the
former European Commission President Barroso of violating the EU
integrity code for moving to a top position at Goldman Sachs.